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CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen)

Engaged Employer

Good place to start a CPA career, but felt undervalued by headquarters - Staff Auditor CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen) Employee Review

3.0
Sep 28, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

As a medium-sized professional services firm, CLA was a great place to start an auditing career as most clients are small enough that first year staff gain exposure to several different audit areas right from the start. This also leads to opportunities for working on clients from 2 or 3 different industries, which was also very interesting. Managers and Seniors on my team were genuinely concerned with my development and were generally great to work with. Company offered lots of opportunities for training and all staff traveled to headquarters each year for a full week of training.

Cons

The main con is one that I feel is true for most/all auditing firms, which is that audit staff and audit seniors are being criticized one day for not having enough billable hours and the next day for running over individual project budgets that were built based on a target realization rate rather than a valid assessment of the time required. Also, the benefits plan left many things to be desired, healthcare coverage had significant co-insurance %s and either high deductibles or high premiums compared to other jobs I've had. Annual raises were generally 2-5% so experienced staff wound up not making much more than the next year's entry level staff.

Explore other reviews about CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen)

5.0
Jul 2, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Culture and mentoring programs with teams

Cons

Compensation appears to be stunted even for promotion

1.0
Jul 6, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good thing national teams allow remote work opportunity because there's not enough space in the local offices anyway, but you might just end up working after hours more often than not.

Cons

No pay raises year after year which is an actual pay decrees when taking into account inflation, fake "flexible" PTO, required to work 45 hours a week without any overtime, raises, bonus, or any financial reward which actually matters. You have to do ridiculous workday feedbacks, and self review every quarter but it means nothing because they don't even consider the feed back you've received when laying off. It is your job to find work, and when there is't enough work for you it's your fault, not leadership's. You get promised new projects and they are always delayed for months at a time and many times nothing even comes out of it. Pretentious company that likes to call itself "family" - only red flags here.

6
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